Historically secure communication has been a weapon of war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-use_technology

There was the RSA t-shirt which supposedly could be classified as a munition because the source code on the shirt would provide a high enough level of encryption:

http://www.cypherspace.org/adam/shirt/uk-shirt.html

PGP released a really nicely bound version of their source code typeset in an OCR font that they exported because a book would theoretically fall under the First Amendment:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy#Criminal_in...

Instructions to produce a nuclear bomb also fall under the First Amendment.

There was a contradiction in the laws. That's hardly novel or unprecedented. The higher courts pretty much spend all day dealing with contradictions in laws.

The design is not the hard part. Obtaining the proper fissiles is.

Cryptography is a defensive weapon. Zero-days on the other hand, are an offensive weapon. There are distinctions between helmets and clubs, you know, and the law should recognize these.

There are also laws against defensive items being owned by civilians as well. I disagree with them, but when I had an officer friend tell me my dragon skin armor I bought and used in Iraq was technically illegal now that I am a "civilian", that was one of the moments when I realized how much damage the national security state has done to the constitution.

I expect incoming comments about the LA bank robbery in 3, 2, 1...

(Assuming it works) is ballistic missile defense not a war technology?

The intended use might be defensive, but ballistic missile can be used for offense.

I think danielweber is referring to systems designed to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles, not to ballistic missiles used for defensive purposes

>The kind of cryptography that lets people communicate securely?

I don't know of any other kinds of cryptography...

>Belongs on the same list as physical objects that intended to pierce walls and flesh?

War has a lot less to do with shooting people and a lot more to do with information than you seem to appreciate.

The public algorithms are public and there is no need or usefulness in export restrictions now on things known worldwide (and the usefulness of such restrictions was gone for a considerable time before they were lifted).

War has a lot to do with all kinds of things, however optimizing your country for warfare imposes a high cost on civil life and the economy.

You failed to justify the decision of restricting the export of cryptography and the associated costs of that.

This seems a bit harsh, perhaps. Bletchley park was still in the minds of many people. It would have been conventional wisdom to keep this stuff away from "bad guys". Recall, gps was spoofed at this stage as well for civilian purposes. The other issue--although perhaps unsaid--is that ultimately this may have hastened tactics to make HW unsecure, and to collect undisclosed/zero day expoits in widespread SW and other things that could compromise a comms system that was perceived to be secure.

Side-note: nice easter egg on Google when you search for "Bletchey park". Look at the "knowledge graph" result on the right.